BMX

I recently purchased a set of 4 Raybestos red label rotors from Rockauto.com (56700R - 56703R). They look pretty good and the install went smoothly. We shall see how long they last me at Road America this weekend

I have a question for those who have had these rotors for a while on their cars. Will the inside area that is not clamped by the brake pads rust? It looks like that area on the stock rotors was coated with a different material, but the new rotors just have the same finish over the entire rotor. I thought about painting the hat area black, but I got lazy and just cleaned the rotors and installed them....

TIA for the help!

-Brandon

UstaB-GS549

You can paint them with barbecue paint if you like the black look. Mine are rainbow colored blue hues after running at Autobahn last weekend. They eventually will rust, but I don't have time to paint. They will crack or be in the recycle bin long before the rust builds up.

Have fun at RA. Bring spares even if they are old junk ones to limp home on.

freefall

Yep - I like the rainbow heat coloring myself. Rust, yes - but their lifetime is so short that it's not worth painting.

BMX

So these rotors won't last very long at all? How long before you think I'll crack 'em? RA will be a full day thing, then I'll be doing mostly autox and drag racing until the rotors give out.

How long does it normally take to crack/wear out your rotors? I'll be doing a bit of street driving after winter is over.

I saved all my old rotors and pads to bring with me to RA just in case

Thanks again!

freefall

With high friction pads (Wilwood H) and race tires - seen anywhere from 1-4 weekends on a set.

BMX

I forgot to mention the pads; I'm using Hawk HPS. I wanted the HP+ but I got a great deal on the HPS so I went with them.

xsiveone

They'll rust if you don't paint them and they'll still rust even if you do. The only way to keep them from rusting is to have them zinc washed. It's not worth it though for a set of track rotors.

What he means by lifetime is short is that you can get 100K miles out of a set of street rotors, but if you track the rotors, they won't last long.

BMX

Got it. For the price I paid for these rotors and pads, I can do my brakes once a year and still pay less than using OE pads and rotors. It helps I don't have to pay for labor, too

VetteDrmr

With HPS pads I don't know if you can get enough heat into them to worry about cracking; the pads will give up long before.

Even with the HP+ pads I think you'll go a long time, especially if you're running street tires.

HTH, and have a good one,
Mike

varkwso

I can get the rotors to last the life of the pads with Carbotech and some Hawk pads. They will be stress cracked and a nice blue color. I had rockauto rotors and XP8 pads on my ZO6 for ~8 months and 36-40 track days. Other than taper I had no brake problems.

larryfs

The red label raybestos. were you lucky enough to get canada made, or were they chinese made.
it's stamped on the box.

xsiveone

Sorry to say, but I'm not a big fan of the Hawk HPS. I think that the stock Z06 pads will give them a run for their money. The HP+ are pretty decent, but I prefer the Carbotech's.

BMX

I got rotors made in Canada. That's pretty good, eh?

I didn't want to go with the HPS pads, HP+ was what was recommended to me, but as long as I get eqivalent to stock C5 Z06 braking, I'll be ok with that for now. The stock brakes had 36K miles on them, so I'm positive what I have now is better than what I had before!

Thanks again, everyone!

BMX

Time to give credit where credit is due; the brakes started fading after 1 20-minute session at RA and the pedal was spongy on the way home after 4 sessions. I burned a full tank of gas in 4 sessions!

Now at least I have these HPS pads as an emergency "get home" set. Next track day I'll probably get the HP+ pads. The HPS pads definitely won't be able to take another track day. What type of Carbotech pads do you guys use? Maybe I can give those a try as well.

The rotors are nice and blue/purple in the center from all the heat of braking

varkwso

I run XP8s all around and keep them on all the time. Some guys run XP10s all around or on front with 8s or 9s on back. But 10s are not really suitable for street driving I have heard from Carbotech. I have had no problems with braking at any track with XP8s or running them around town (other than the noise - but who cares about that? My rotors last the life of the pad...

The real hard core run 12s on front and 10s on back...

UstaB-GS549

I have XP10 on front and XP9 on the rear right now. That is combo I ran at Road America. The brake pedal was a little spongy after two days, but braking was good, slowing from 145+. Lap times were 1:36 +/- just for reference.

I'm lazy. I drive them on the street and put up with a little dust and squeal evey once in a while.


The year before, I ran XP9/XP8 and thought braking was a little marginal at RA.

USAsOnlyWay

I thought the HPS was the stock z06 pad?

varkwso

Not really - not sure who makes the GM pad but HPS is not the same compound as the ZO6 pad - HP+ is closer but I do not think that is it either.